30 Surprising Facts About Your Favourite Christmas Movies

We can’t blame you for thinking you know all there is to know about your favourite beloved holiday flicks. After all, annual 24-hour marathons and Netflix access make it almost too easy to unintentionally learn every heartwarming and hilarious line.

But even the most diehard Christmas movie fanatics still have secrets to discover, from just how much actors went it took to bring storybook characters to life, to the cameos you might have missed even on your 10th viewing.

6. InThe Muppet Christmas Carol, the flowing look of the Ghost of Christmas Past was achieved by submerging the puppet in a water tank.

7. According toThe Nightmare Before Christmas‘ supervising animator Eric Leighton, the film was shot at 24 frames per second, meaning the characters had to be posed 24 different times for each second of the film.

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8. An episode of MythBusters proved that a tongue can instantly get stuck to a freezing pole à la A Christmas Story.

9. Eagle-eyed viewers will spot a hidden Mickey Mouse logo when The Santa Clause characters Scott and Charlie pass by the moon in a sleigh.

10. Will Ferrell ate so much sugar while filming Elfthat he had trouble sleeping.

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11. John Candy shot all of his Home Alonescenes in one long 23-hour day on set.

12. Eric Lloyd, who played Charlie in The Santa Clause, broke his front teeth in a fall right before filming and had to wear prosthetics for the shoot.

13. A Christmas Story child star Peter Billingsley was the first of thousands to audition for the role.

14. Gonzo was originally going to portray Christmas Yet to Come in The Muppet Christmas Carol. He eventually took on the role of Charles Dickens because, as director Brian Henson said, he was “the least likely character to be Charles Dickens.”

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15.Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer‘s stop-motion animation was produced in Japan, while most of the audio was recorded in Canada.

16. The shots of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in Miracle on 34th Streetare real: Star Edmund Gwenn actually took to a float as Santa for the 1946 celebration.

17. Jim Carrey was originally slated to star in Elf.

18.The Santa Clause joke involving “1-800-SPANK-ME” caused massive problems for parents when kids discovered it connected them to an actual phone sex hotline. Some viewers who dialed the number reportedly racked up hundreds of dollars in phone bills.

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19. Composer Danny Elfman still didn’t have a script when it came time to write the music for The Nightmare Before Christmas, so he based his songs only on conversations with and sketches from director Tim Burton.

20. Grown-up A Christmas Storystar Peter Billingsley has an uncredited cameo in Elf.

21.Vincent Price was considered for the part of It’s a Wonderful Lifevillain Mr. Potter.

22.The Grinch was black-and-white in the original Dr. Seuss book, but director Chuck Jones had the idea to make him green for the 1966 animated feature.